Real Meaning of Victory Day: For Our Freedom and Yours

Translation by Tatzhit. For those short on time – key statements are bolded.

[Now that the liberal fantasies about WWII history have been largely laid to rest], they have been replaced by claims that the Great Patriotic War should only be viewed as a terrible tragedy. It then follows that Victory Day should be nothing more than a period of mourning, a reminder that war [should be avoided at all costs]. Celebrating the fact that triumphant Soviet troops marched through the streets of European capitals should be beneath anyone intelligent – troops of various states marched through each others capitals countless times over the course of human history.

All this, of course, is technically correct. Purely emotional answers to these statements – saying “this is our victory”, “my grandpa fought there” etc. – merely confirm to the opponents of the “Victory Cult” that the patriots have no rational arguments. However, such arguments do exist. The victory won by the Soviet Union in May 1945 has a defining feature that elevates it above the countless local victories in previous European wars, and makes it a pivotal event in the course of human history. Moreover, this important feature of Victory Day lies in the humanitarian and cultural realm – just like the most recent arguments leveled against it.

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The simple fact is that the Soviet victory in World War II was the blow that shattered the myth of elitism. Or rather, not simply a myth, but a “supermyth”, a core concept that defined human society for the entirety of previous history.

It’s tough to imagine now, but ever since the days of antiquity, the concept of “heroism” was associated with the concepts of “aristocracy”, “elitism”. The word “hero” in Ancient Greece did not simply mean someone brave, but a person close to the gods (often, their direct descendant). Since ancient times, heroic acts were traditionally the prerogative of kings or at least nobles. Commoners, and especially slaves, were considered to be incapable of heroism [or of outstanding achievements in general – a sort of a self-fulfilling prophesy that preserved societies based upon slave labor and indentured servitude].

Although by the 20th century the talk of “demigods” and “divine right of kings” was largely a thing of the past, the actual idea of humans being born unequal in spirit and in mind was very popular. Although some egalitarian and enlightened ideas were gaining traction, the theory of eugenics – the idea that human nature and worth were genetically determined – was spreading rapidly. This science emerged in the late 19th century (based on successful application of genetics in agriculture) and claimed it was necessary to “improve” humans through careful control of their reproduction.

Of course, the idea that hereditary factors play a key role in shaping one’s mental and moral characteristics was nothing new (as already mentioned above, the idea of “divine heritage” prevailed for thousands of years). But now the old “religious” explanation was replaced by a scientific theory. For a thinking man in the 19th century, the idea that intelligence and morality were based on genetic traits was very logical, and could be seen as progressive (due to focusing on purely material factors, rather than supernatural ones). Therefore, eugenics became extremely popular round the world, from Russia to the United States. But it reached its height in Germany.

There, eugenics was popular even before Hitler, being treated as one of the most important branches of knowledge. But it was under the Nazis that this science was established as one of the cornerstones of the state ideology. Nazis were determined to turn the German race into masters of the world – and planned to do it by applying eugenics to “craft” new superhumans. The German bloodline was to be “purified” from foreign impurities that genetically carried decay and weakness, thereby making Germans the most advanced nation in the world. For the sake of this “greater good”, Nazis undertook a mass “selection” campaign, i.e. mass segregation and genocide of the undesirables. First they destroyed the “mentally defective”, and then the same fate awaited all other individuals judged to be “genetically inferior”.

The latter, as we now know, meant Jews first and foremost. By the way, that was all based on science. As written in the “The Myth of the 20th century” (“Nazi bestseller #2”, second only to ‘Mein Kampf’), the main problem of the Jews was interbreeding within small, urban communities. According to the prevailing scientific views of the time, that caused not only health defects, but also produced inferior moral qualities. That is why Nazis created the concept of ‘subhumans’ (untermenschen) – degenerate creatures that should be destroyed before they manage to breed and further degrade the human race.

Ironically, this obsession with ‘racial purity’ was based on aforementioned ‘agricultural genetics’ – because, for livestock and plants, selecting and preserving purebred organisms was considered necessary. ‘Interracial hybrids’ were viewed as less viable – even though we now know this completely contradicts genetic laws (i.e. in reality purebred dogs have some specifically selected qualities, but are far less healthy or long-lived than mutts).

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However, the scientific basis of the Nazi philosophy is not particularly important. What’s important is that the whole ideology of the Third Reich was built upon the belief in elitism. The German nation, as the one that retained the greatest proportion of “pure Aryan blood”, was the most advanced nation in the world, by definition. And after the Nazis “purified” the bloodline further, it would have no equals – “old nations of Europe” were still poisoned by “foreign genes” and could not really compete. Slavs were considered to be even more inferior, due to their lack of concern about preserving “pure bloodlines” – thus being mostly Asian genetically, despite rather “Aryan” outward appearance.

[Snip] This “superiority” theory seemed to be completely confirmed by practice. The invasion of Czechoslovakia was bloodless – the Czechs knelt before the new owners without resisting (that was the confirmation of “Slavic races are slaves at heart” mantra [parroted by Nazis and modern liberals – ed.]). The Poles put up some resistance, but it were quickly crushed. Most importantly, the strongest opponents, the colonial powers of France and Britain, were also defeated astonishingly easily (especially considering how stubbornly they fought in the previous big war). Practical results – Wehrmacht soldiers strolling through Paris – made it much harder to argue that the theoretical foundations of Nazism were wrong.

It’s not surprising that the leaders of the Third Reich believed that victory against USSR would be similarly swift and complete. After the war, hindsight resulted in all sorts of ideas about Hitler’s foolishness and errors in planning – how he could not foresee a protracted war, that he was guided by all sorts of irrational factors, etc. But in 1941, those ideas would seem nonsensical. The “Barbarossa” invasion plan was, like all German military plans, very well laid out and included a detailed list of actions that would lead Germany to a complete victory. In fact, it represented a pinnacle of military planning – never before have such large forces been applied so precisely. Not one “Cannes maneuver”, but three! Six thrusts both dividing and encircling enemy armies – this had never been done in human history.

At the same time, the Nazi plan was well-calculated and rational. Novel German tactic, so-called “Blitzkrieg”, used superior mobility and organization to concentrate overwhelming forces on a narrow section of the front, ripping through any defenses like a knife through butter. Mobile units would then move to enemy rear [and cut the opposing forces off from food, ammo, communication, hospitals, etc.]. Then, as soldier Svejk’s wisdom goes – ‘if surrounded on all sides, a unit is obliged to surrender.’

[It is also worth noting that Axis-controlled Europe outnumbered the Soviets nearly two-fold in manpower, and far more than that – in industrial output. As Blitzkrieg demanded a well-organized, professional, mobile army, Wehrmacht wasn’t that much larger than the Red Army, but was better trained and equipped with far more radios, trucks, machine guns, armored carriers, and other “force multipliers”. In essence, Wehrmacht was the concept of ‘ubermensch’ (superhumans) made flesh – ed.]

So plan Barbarossa was put into action… and failed. It went off-track from the very beginning. Historians like to discuss the early mistakes of the Soviet military command that led to many units being caught in “cauldrons”, but that was simply the intended result of the German tactics, the main goal that Nazis pursued. However, these encirclements – even when successful – did not lead to Soviets giving up as intended. Surrounded units kept fighting, tried to break out, counter-attacked, and still tied up the encircling Nazi forces. This greatly reduced the speed and effectiveness of the blitzkrieg. Not to mention that the overall plan to break up and dismantle the entire Red Army had failed – despite the losses, it has managed to keep its overall cohesion and structure. In fact, rather than the expected decay of morale and combat capability in the face of the blitzkrieg, the opposite was happening: Soviets were learning to fight, reorganizing their forces, ramping up weapons production, etc. The supposedly ‘degenerate and cowardly’ Slavic population was volunteering for the Red Army in huge numbers [see an article HERE], formed guerrilla units in the Nazi-occupied territories, and stubbornly resisted in completely impossible situations.

Not to mention the evacuation of USSR’s industry to the east, which meant that Germans seizing the country’s vast western regions failed to cause the industrial collapse Nazis planned for. On the contrary, by fall 1941 the production of arms increased to the level where it didn’t merely make up for all the losses sustained, but also allowed for the rearmament of the Red Army with the most modern weaponry. Such a blow to the German war plan was completely unexpected: no German strategist could imagine that [subhumans] could accomplish such enormous feats within mere months.

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In general, “Untermenschen” taught the purported “master race” an excellent lesson. Contrary to the whole race theory, the “racially impure” Russians and other Soviet nations, including the Mongols and Eskimos (not to mention the Jews), have beaten the perfect Nazi plan. And afterward, slowly but inevitably pushed the “superhumans” back, despite the disparity in population and industry reaching 1:3 by 1942. The previously victorious Wehrmacht suffered the shame of defeat and captivity. Nazis indeed marched through Moscow – but as a sullen column of prisoners of war. Soviet soldiers rote their names on the walls of Berlin, and hoisted the banner of victory on the conquered Reichstag.

Among other things, the defeat of the Third Reich meant the defeat of “racial theory” as such. It was probably the most resounding refutation of any scientific theory in history. Hitler’s ‘grand experiment’, intended to prove that humans are inherently unequal, ended with soldiers of Slavic, Jewish, and Central Asian descent trampling German eagles and writing their names on the walls of the European capital. To complete the picture, we can add black soldiers from American military force doing the same. And this wasn’t simply a military victory – it was a victory in a modern, technological war, a triumph of superior engineering, planning and organization. Therefore, the Soviet Union’s victory was also a victory for the idea of ​​human equality. The theories of eugenics and elitism, so popular before the war, did not only go out of style, but were found to be completely wrong and unscientific.

This, in turn, affected other ancient inequalities. For example, the next decades saw the collapse of the global colonial system. The axioms that ​​seemed unshakeable for centuries – like the white race’s superiority to all others – suddenly lost their credibility and soon disappeared into thin air. What collapsed wasn’t merely British and French empires, but the whole myth of “White Man’s Burden”. It was after World War II that the Civil Rights movement in USA renewed their struggle, one that by now culminated with a black president.

[Ironically, this picture is somewhat correct – if USSR/Stalin lost, blacks would likely take much longer to attain equality. Obama really should be thanking Stalin at least as much as Martin Luther King. … Let that sink in for a minute. – ed.]

The age-old wisdom that some races are more intelligent or better than others was gone. Of course, all of this wasn’t just due to the Red flag over Reichstag – the very existence and development of USSR was a powerful factor that changed the world both before and after WWII, challenging not only the notions of ‘racial superiority’, but all the ideas of dividing humanity into ‘elites’ and ‘plebs’.

USSR – a country that destroyed its elite (as a system) in the 1917 revolution, and created a far superior class of engineers, scientists, and planners within just two decades (as shown by the Soviet victory) – completely refuted the existing tradition of cultivating aristocratic elites. It became clear that ‘working for three centuries to form traditions and work ethics‘ is no longer necessary. It’s enough to give people a good education and provide certain conditions in order to obtain any number of specialists. This was one of the reasons that, after WWII, all developed countries switched to providing higher education ‘for the masses’, as opposed to the pre-war model of having a few ‘elite’ universities and colleges.

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In conclusion, we can say that after Soviet victory the world has made a sharp turn – from the period of triumph of elitism and inequality, which culminated in German Nazism (as well as other fascist regimes), it turned to the ideas of humanism and equality of people. Now, even if these concepts can be twisted, everyone pays lip service to “democracy”, “human rights”, and such. We can say that the so-called “European values”, although they did originate in Europe, only prevailed there because of the heroism of Soviet soldiers.

That is why the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany is a Victory with a capital V, standing far above all others in world history.In 1945, it wasn’t one country or empire beating another, which has happened countless times in history. It was a resounding victory for the idea of ​​equality and social justice, and the defeat of the idea of ​​’natural superiority’ of higher races and upper classes, the division of human race into masters and slaves.May 1945 drew a line across millennia, putting an end to one historic period and starting another…

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Editor’s Notes

Note 1:

[trollface – ed.]

Note 2: Random facebook quote:===Poroshenko government tries to replace Victory Day with newly-invented “Day of Mourning”. Instead of “We won”, the motto now is “Never again”. …“Never again” what? “Never again should we stand up to fascism”?===